I would like to offer another opinion on how the Llagas
groundwater basin functions and how the responsible agency
overlying the basin operates.
EDITOR:
I would like to offer another opinion on how the Llagas groundwater basin functions and how the responsible agency overlying the basin operates. That agency, of course, is the Santa Clara Valley Water District. Flood control, water storage, dam operation, imported water, percolation, pipelines, pumping stations, water quality and other duties are their charge.
The local operation, before the merger with the Gavilan Water Conservation District in 1987, was mostly flood control. They did operate the Main Avenue percolation pond for the basin’s north end near Morgan Hill. An earlier merger of the Central Santa Clara Valley Water Conservation District with the northern district had resulted in construction of the percolation pond. Anderson Dam water was used in its operation.
It was a long haul, about 15 years, before the San Felipe imported water project was approved in Washington, D.C. Congressman Charles Gubser of Gilroy played a major role in that beginning to end. A four-county San Felipe committee, headed by the SCVWD spent countless hours working on its progress.
Recently, a point or two was brought up suggesting that the perchlorate discovered in our underground aquifers was not really a serious situation. I would hate to stand up at a meeting attended by 800 San Martin citizens and make such a statement, even though I sincerely hope that more conclusive testing proves that it is not as serious a problem.
Perhaps 60 or 70 years ago, we probably would have ignored it. Back in those days, we’d dump our dried prunes in the “prune house” and maybe a couple of months later sack them up (mice droppings and cat hair included) and ship them off to the packing plant. We would even parade our dead buck on the front fender through town before depositing it at the butcher’s shop (hide, hair and all) to hang in their lockers. I even remember the time a couple of local guys laid their dead mountain lion on the hotel bar and had a real old-fashioned celebration for the next two or three hours. Think we could get away with any of that today? Not unless you want to go out of business and/or go to jail.
What the Santa Clara Valley Water District is doing is absolutely proper and necessary. It is their obligation to get the answers to the perchlorate problem as fast as they can. If they hadn’t taken the responsibility, the state Regional Water Quality Control Board would have forced them to. So far, Olin Corp. is cooperating and paying for bottled water for all who want it and will probably pay for the first system that separates the perchlorate out.
There were also some points made about how the south part of the Llagas basin is not receiving any benefits from the imported San Felipe water. This assumption is completely wrong. By adding two more percolation sites (the Madrone Channel and another pond near Half Road) this makes a total of three ponds putting water into the north part of the basin, thus keeping water levels higher in the area.
Under any percolation area, a hydraulic mound forms (not unlike the top of a mountain) and water will move downslope in all directions. But, with higher levels on the north side of Uvas/Llagas, transfer water entering the basin through the Llagas Creek channel pushes most of that water south where the basin drops off into larger and deeper aquifers.
Consequently, imported water benefits the whole basin and we pay for that benefit. As far as the water flowing down the Pajaro into the ocean, some of that is due to the California Fish and Game agreement that requires releases for steelhead migration. Without this agreement, the dam would not have been built.
Yes, there is water going under the county line into what is known as the West Bolsa Basin, an area of about 14,500 acres located north of Hollister. A study by the U.S. Geological Survey many years ago indicated that about 80 percent of this groundwater comes from Santa Clara County. Someday, this should be addressed.
Finally, I’d like to make a point about the Uvas Creek flood that occurred in the mid-1980s. Ignored is the 15 inches of rain in less than three days in the upper watershed that was later classified as the “once in a 100 year” storm in the Uvas Watershed. At one point, the flow over the 240-foot wide spillway was five and a half feet deep; the highest ever recorded. In a 24-hour period, some 20,000 acre feet of water passed downstream meeting flood flows of the Little Arthur and Bodish Creeks. Along with other streams entering the Uvas Channel before getting to Gilroy, there were probably 30,000 acre feet of water trying to get past Thomas Road in a very short period of time. Trees in the channel didn’t make any significant difference. I’ve heard that particular flood called a relatively minor event when in actuality; it was the largest flood since the Uvas Dam was built.
If the two districts had not merged in 1987, there would have been two pump taxes levied; one by the Santa Clara Valley Water District and another by the Gavilan Water Conservation District. I will guarantee that the charge by Gavilan would have been substantially higher than the one levied by SCVWD. How long would the City of Gilroy have stood for that sort of arrangement? Not very long, I’ll bet. So let’s all get together on the same page and push for solving the perchlorate problem in the quickest amount of time as possible.
Jack Sturla, Gilroy
